Path of Love
by DayMoon89
Summary: As Toph sits in bed embraced in her lover's arms she couldn't help but remember a time when things were more confusing. A story in which Toph recolects her struggle in finding love. Read to find out, COMPLETE!


The room was filled with a delicate silence that put Toph at peace. Very few sounds completed the air, her breathing and the other's next to her. She felt protected from the world as she lay in bed with his arms around her. Though as she sat in her lover's arms, Toph couldn't help to remember a time when things were more….confusing.

Toph remembered the first couple days she joined the group. It was mostly fighting with Katara and teaching. Though, as she pondered, there was a time in between when she was finding her heart aching. Weeks passed and she had grown much closer to the group, but Toph being the toughie she is, was silently wishing to become a little closer to one particular member, Sokka. Slowly but surely Toph had found herself developing what Katara would call a 'crush' on Sokka. Though Toph could never choose by looks, she found herself also enjoying his personality. He was funny, smart, sarcastic, and could be caring, Toph remembered when they passed through the Fire Nation villages, girls hearts boomed with joy at the sight of him. So she took it he was cute too. Toph might have had a tough exterior but inside was a fragile heart, which was quickly broken when Suki was brought back from the Boiling Rock Prison. She knew then and there that her chances with Sokka were done.

Then there was Katara, she had found herself at one point just before Sozin's comet considering the fact that maybe she was the one. I mean, Katara _had_ called her pretty back in Ba Sing Se, was there a possibility that they could be a thing. During this time period, she had never worried about them both being females thing. Though, it was the day the moved to Ember Island that Toph realized that she could never bring herself to think of Katara more than a motherly figure.

After the war, she began to ponder about the fact that maybe Zuko could be the one. She found him spending most of his time in Ba Sing Se at his uncle tea shop, as where she found herself there very frequently. Toph knew that Zuko had many responsibilities coming his way and she might not a have a chance to get close. But during the few months in Ba Sing Se, she abruptly found out that getting close was going to be bigger problem than she thought. Zuko being a hotheaded person was very people shy, he could be kind and caring to the people he trusted, which included his uncle and Twinkletoes, though she not being on that list would make it difficult to get close to the Firebender. Toph remembered the very few times they would share small conversations, which both of them were terrible at. She had quickly rendered that he wasn't the one, considering the fact that she would have to develop a friendship before anything else.

The Duke, she remembered him fondly. He was about 2 years younger than her, so she didn't know if he would be into the dating crap. Though as years passed, and the Duke grew older she noticed he was always falling for the nearest girl. Toph had shortly considered the fact to try and impress him. That plan had abruptly fallen short, for when an old friend of the groups' came to visit the Palace, she knew the Duke's heart was set on her, Meng they had called her.

Toph now 19 had wondered if she were to be lonely all her life. Most of her other friends had started their lives, Sokka and Suki were married and had a child. Zuko and Mai married and two children, The Duke and Meng married and on the way with her first child. She had moved into the Fire Nation palace and assisted Mai with the children, though it was a few months after her arrival that Katara and Aang burst through the doors shouting at each other, literally. At first everyone was awestruck at the boisterous entrance but was quickly snapped out of it by Zuko who immediately took charge. "I'm done with him, you can have him," she had overheard Katara shout. "Oh so what I'm just some pet, is that what I was all along," Aang's voice had been the same level as Katara's.

The bickering had continued the whole day, Zuko had to stop all his Firelord duties just to try and help the two. It wasn't till the moon rose in the sky that everything in the Palace was quiet. Toph remembered the tense silence that filled the hallways as she searched for Aang's room. When she entered the room, she noticed that Aang was standing out on the balcony. She made her way towards him and even though she couldn't see it, she could feel that Aang's gaze was on her. Suddenly she had felt Aang's soft hand cover up hers on the balcony rail, and right then and there she knew Aang was the one.

Toph now 23 and married lay peacefully in the warm embrace of Aang's arms. She heard his breath hitch, woops had she waken his up. Toph shuffled her position so that she was facing him, not that it did much good. Gently she placed a hand on the side of his face. "I don't know how long it's gonna take me to get used to you having to touch my face when we're sleeping," Aang whispered.

"Shut up and kiss me," she retorted before being embraced in a kiss.


End file.
